Mysticism -- Fiction; Supernatural -- Fiction; Virginia -- Fiction
She saw how all life interlocked, how shock to one was taken up by the
whole, how joy to one thrilled through all. "What we call space is
Being; what we call time is our own Story, our colored, toned
lastingness! Give and take, forever and forever, forever and forever!
Find lovely things to give, and from the other side of us take lovely
things, lovelier and lovelier! Know thyself--know thyself--know Thyself.
'If ye do it unto one, the least of these, ye do it unto Me.' 'And all
we made One.'"
The walls of the room disappeared. Anna Darcy, a slight, worn, teaching
woman, sixty years old, vanished or altered. There was wide life, land
and sea, deep life that did not talk in births and deaths, lofty life
that said, "Better than this wave even, shall you know!"
It was Strength, it was Peace, it was Wisdom and Balm.
Across the hall Robert Dane lay thinking. In his youth he had the
passion of a Shelley for a regenerate world. Older, the vision dulled,
and yet he worked on doggedly, heroically, one with thousands of others
breaking and making a road for the feet of Coming Man. He worked
heroically, never sparing himself, a devoted life. Sometimes the gleam
shone fair before him, oftener mists made it faint, sometimes he lost
it. Then it shone again. He worked on. To-night, lying here at Sweet
Rocket, his youth came back, but higher, fuller, wiser! He saw what
might be done, what was doing. He saw the interrelated roads and the
travelers upon them, the hosts of travelers. A vision came to him in the
night. His body lay very still, but he himself saw clearly a great
thing.
There was a City that was country also, and sea and land and sky, that
was a world, harmonious, great, not a dead thing, not unintellectual,
but living, living with a vast fervor and beauty and interest and
knowledge, throwing out even, it might be, silver lines toward a world
yet more light, more fervent, more living! But it was there, all that he
could now image of body and spirit, mind and soul's desire:
He saw like a pale film another city that was pale and sorrowful to
this. And he saw that city, as it were, send out itself, by rivers and
seas and roads, thousands and thousands of paths, upon a journey to the
other. There was hardly a point--truly he thought there was not any
point--that did not travel. So many living beings, so many ships or
rafts, caravans or solitary travelers to that Desired Haven! All going,
some ahead, some behind, but all going. The pale and sorrowful city was
moving into that other, and brightening as it moved. That other was
drawing it, steadily, steadily! He felt it like a loadstone; he felt it
like a mother calling home.
The vision passed, but there was left Assurance. He lay still in the
starry night. The mind kept up an underhumming with words like
"reintegration," "superconsciousness," but the spirit dealt only with
the bliss of a great coming to itself. He slept at last, and his sleep
was dreamless and profoundly renewing.
XX
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account